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Disney bought the distribution rights from Paramount for $115 million. This deal also included The Avengers.

Originally, Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures were looking to shoot this movie in Michigan due to the tax incentives. However, due to North Carolina guaranteeing a $20 million tax credit, the producers decided to shoot there instead.

Gemma Arterton, Diane Kruger and Isla Fisher were considered for a role. Jessica Chastain was cast but she dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Rebecca Hall was cast in her place.

Although this is the third Iron Man movie, it is actually the fifth time Robert Downey Jr. has played Tony Stark/Iron Man. He did a walk-on cameo as Tony Stark in The Incredible Hulk and is part of the ensemble cast in The Avengers. Robert Downey Jr. will reprise his role as Tony Stark / Iron Man in The Avengers: Age of Ultron and a third Avengers film as part of his 2-picture deal with Marvel Studios.[1]

Jude Law was considered for the role of Aldrich Killian.

First film in the series not to be directed by Jon Favreau.

One scene was shot inside Epic Games, a video game development company known for the Gears of War franchise.

The Iron Patriot in this film is a new set of Iron Man armour that bears Captain America's color scheme. In the comics, it was an identity used by Spider-Man's nemesis, the Green Goblin, a.k.a. Norman Osborn. The Iron Patriot in the film is nothing more than an upgraded and repainted version of the War Machine armour.

Shane Black described the film as "a Tom Clancy thriller", with the focus on real-world type villains and not "two men in iron suits fighting each other".

Kevin Feige described the film as "a full-on Tony Stark-centric movie... He's stripped of everything, he's backed up against a wall, and he's gotta use his intelligence to get out of it. He can't call Thor, Cap or Nick Fury, and he can't look for the Helicarrier in the sky." Robert Downey Jr. further described the character as influenced by a post-"The Avengers" world: "What are his challenges now? What are some limitations that might be placed on him and what sort of threat would have him, as usual, ignore those limitations?"

Andy Lau was in talks to play the role of Chen Lu (Radioactive Man), but dropped out upon the birth of his first child. Daoming Chen and Wu Xiubowere considered for the role, before finally Xueqi Wang was cast.

Robert Downey Jr. had previously starred in Shane Black's film "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", and spoke highly of Black replacing Jon Favreau, saying that "bringing in Shane Black to write and direct the film is basically the only thing that Favreau and the audience and Marvel and I could ever actually sign off on."

According to producer Kevin Feige, the Mandarin is portrayed with an ambiguous background: "It's less about his specific ethnicity than the analogy of various cultures and their iconography that he perverts for his own end." For instance, the Mandarin sports a "Captain America shield" tattoo, in effect using the symbol to represent his own leadership of an army.

This will mark the first time Samuel L. Jackson does not appear in an "Iron Man" related movie as Nick Fury.

Unlike the first two Iron Man films, Industrial Light and Magic is not involved with the film's VFX. Instead, Digital Domain and Weta Digital took over.

The film's composer Brian Tyler is the third composer to score an Iron Man film, following Ramin Djawadi for "Iron Man" and John Debney of "Iron Man 2".

According to Kevin Feige, the Mandarin is inspired by Colonel Kurtz from "Apocalypse Now": "He wants to represent this sort of prototypical terrorist, someone who worked for the intelligence community, who went nuts in the field and became this sort of devotee of war tactics."

A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) is the scientific organization headed by Aldrich Killian. In the comics, it was a straightforward terrorist organization and the evil counterpart to S.H.I.E.L.D., which originally was an offshoot of Captain America's World War II enemies HYDRA.

The first day Robert Downey Jr. and Sir Ben Kingsley met on set, they snapped a photo together to send to director and mutual friend Lord Richard Attenborough.

Property master Russell Bobbitt designed a custom set of ten rings for the Mandarin. These rings are Bobbitt's favourite props from the film.

The Mandarin's lair was shot at the Villa Vizcaya (exteriors) and at a private South Beach waterfront (interiors).

Kevin Feige described the film's core theme as a love story: "The love triangle in this movie is between Tony, Pepper and his obsession with those suits, and the obsession with technology. *Yes, there's a bad guy. Yes, the stakes are very very high. But the real stakes are, is Tony going to be able to set aside spending every day in that workshop tinkering with the suits in order to focus on Pepper, the one thing that matters most?"

Robert Downey Jr. pushed to get Gwyneth Paltrow to have some action scenes, and Kevin Feige approved: "We are bored by the damsel in distress. But sometimes we need our hero to be desperate enough in fighting for something other than just his own life. So, there is fun to be had with 'Is Pepper in danger or is she the savior?' over the course of this movie."

In the comics, Ellen Brandt is an agent of AIM who tried to steal from biochemist Ted Sallis... who turned into the supernatural Man-Thing and burned her face off. In the film she is just sent in pursuit of Stark; however, she has minor scars on her face in homage to her comic portrayal.

The film was originally budgeted at $140 million, but after "The Avengers" became a huge hit, Marvel Studios and Disney upped it to $200 million in order to allow Shane Black to make the best movie he could.

At 130 minutes, this is the longest stand-alone Iron Man film.

Tony Stark alludes to Trevor Slattery being a stage actor in the scene where he is looking up information on him stating: "lots of pageantry going on here, lots of theater."

Shane Black admitted that Jon Favreau gave him tips and advice during filming (for which he was very grateful and thankful for) though noted that this film would have a "different feel" than the other two.

The ring on the Mandarin's right pinkie is the same one Raza wears in the first Iron Man film.

Happy Hogan sports a rather fetching mullet in 1999. This might be a nod to the hairstyle Stark favoured during the 80's and particularly the 90's in the comics.

Happy Hogan addresses a secretary (who is off-camera) by the name of "Bambi". In the comics, Bambi is the first name of Stark's longest-serving executive secretary, Mrs. Arbogast.

The dragon tattoos on Aldrich Killian's (Guy Pearce) chest is a drawing of another Iron Man villain: Fin Fang Foom.

Jessica Brown Findlay who appears in the film due to the use of footage from "Downton Abbey" was actually considered for a part in another Marvel film; the role of Sharon Carter in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier".

The film was heavily edited for Chinese audiences, the Chinese edit has additional scenes featuring the character Dr. Wu and his assistant (played by Chinese stars Xueqi Wang and Bingbing Fan respectively).

This is the first Iron Man film to not feature Nick Fury, Agent Phil Coulson or any member of SHIELD. SHIELD's database is mentioned by JARVIS when Tony searches information on the Mandarin.

Whilst in the comics Tony Stark dons a number of bulkier armours to battle the Hulk (e.g. Hulkbuster armour), none of these appear in the film. The largest suit shown is known as Igor (Mark 38) and is designed to be used for heavy lifting.

The Extremis enhanced henchmen seen in the movie are based on minor Marvel villains, who each have completely different back-stories than what is seen in the film: - Savin (James Badge Dale) is based on Eric Savin, aka Coldblood, originally a cyborg assassin who was not tied to any one particular Marvel comic book. - Brandt (Stephanie Szostak) is based on Ellen Brandt, the ex-wife and villain to Man-Thing. - and Taggert (Ashley Hamilton) is based on Jack Taggert, aka Firepower, who was African-American in the comics (not white as in the film) and had his own armored suit to fight Iron Man.

The character of United States President Ellis in this movie is named after comic book writer Warren Ellis who wrote the 2005 Iron Man story arc "Extermis", a primary influence for this film and a minor influence for the two previous films.

Director Trademark (Shane Black - "Christmas"): Except for the prologue, the whole film is set at Christmastime.

The film was available for pre-order on home video before it was even released theatrically.

This is Shane Black's third action movie set at Christmas time after "Lethal Weapon" and "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang".

Tony tells a young child with glasses that he loved him in "A Christmas Story". 'Peter Billingsley', who played Ralphie in the movie, was an executive producer on Iron Man and played a small role as a scientist for Obadiah Stane in the first film.

The only Iron Man film not to feature any songs by AC/DC.

The first assembly cut was 3 hours and 15 minutes long. The final cut was 1 hour and 59 minutes long.

According to Jon Favreau, Happy Hogan's favorite television show is "Downton Abbey", which he watches in the hospital (Favreau is actually a big fan of the British series). He felt the show paralleled the hidden (but seen in the comics) backstory of his character: that Happy is in love with Pepper but does not come between her and Tony out of respect for his boss (which is also a theme of Downton Abbey).

Near the beginning of the movie you see Tony Stark strike a mook jong or wing chun wooden dummy. Robert Downey Jr. has been training in wing chun for several years under Sifu Eric Oram and has also used it in Sherlock Holmes. He has also stated he will be testing for his black belt soon.

Jack Taggert (the unstable "Extremis soldier" who blew up the Chinese Theatre), Roxxon Oil and the "Silver Centurion armor" all feature in the "Armor Wars" (1988) storyline in the comics.

Gwyneth Paltrow enjoyed wearing the suit, and on the day of shooting the Malibu attack showed off in front of her son who had accompanied her that day: "He thought it was the best thing that's ever happened to him. So the suit did a lot for my relationship with my son."

The attack on the Chinese Theatre also holds a special significance, as Firepower is sitting right next to the hand-prints and signature of Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey Jr.

The song heard at Bern in the beginning of the film is "Blue" by Eiffel 65. This song is about an encounter with aliens, and foreshadows Tony Stark encountering alien beings in "The Avengers".

This film is the third media adaption to use the Iron Man Extremis storyline, the first time was with the 6-part Iron Man: Extremis motion comic that was released in 2010 as a media based version of the 6 comic book issues that the storyline originated from. The second time was when the plot was used (and toned down) for the Season 2 episode "Extremis" of the child-friendly cartoon show "Iron Man: Armored Adventures" which aired in March 2012.

Production was delayed on August 15, 2012, when Robert Downey Jr.'s ankle and neck were injured in a stunt.

According to the writers, the storyline is influenced by the Iron Man comic miniseries 'Extremis' by Warren Ellis, which involved Tony Stark developing and using the Extremis virus, a nanotech version of Captain America's serum. The origin story in the first Iron Man film was also influenced by parts of 'Extremis'.

The destruction of Stark's Malibu mansion was filmed at the EUE/Screen Gems Studios water tank.

The film's plot incorporates a number of storylines from "Iron Man" comics, namely:The 'Extremis' arc, which involved Tony Stark developing and using the Extremis virus, a nanotech version of Captain America's serumTony Stark is ousted and rendered a homeless vagrant, and while wandering around befriends a civilian who inspires himThe Mandarin seeks to use Extremis as a WMDThe 'Invincible Iron Man' arc, where Stark goes on the run and War Machine and Rescue appear in his placeThe 'Armor Wars' arc, where Tony Stark fakes his death due to constant harassment by Firepower - The 'Enter the Mandarin' arc, where Iron Man clashes with the Mandarin.

James Badge Dale summed up his role as Eric Savin as: "Ben Kingsley is the mouthpiece. Guy Pearce is the brain. I'm the muscle."

With Mark Ruffalo's cameo as Dr. Bruce Banner in the post-credit scene, this marks the first time that an actor has played the character in more than one theatrical film (Eric Bana and Edward Norton only played him one time a piece.)

The Mandarin/Trevor Slattery is shown to be watching Liverpool playing Chelsea in a game of football on television. The goal was scored by Daniel Agger, making the scoreline 3-0. It is suggested that the character is a Liverpool fan as he cheers the goal. While the events of the movie happen at Christmas time, the game took place in real-life on 8th May 2012.

Aldrich Killian was a very minor character in the comics and the mystery of his suicide is what leads Iron Man into the plot involving Extremis. In the film, however, he has been upgraded to major villain.

Director-writer Shane Black explained the concept of the Mandarin being a front for Aldrich Killian as a play on perceptions and expectations: "I wanted to do an interesting story choice, something that was about our own fear and our own ways of viewing villains. What if he's sort of this all-things-to-all-people uber-terrorist? What if he is the myth, and in the end that is what we're dealing with: a created myth perpetuated and cobbled together from popular consciousness?" Producer Kevin Feige admitted it was a huge risk to do, "but it's sometimes important to break with tradition, even at the risk of alienating some purists. Shane had really great ideas about identity and anonymity and false faces."

Tony suits Pepper up in his armour to protect her from Savin's attack. This is a reference to Pepper Potts becoming the superheroine Rescue in the comics, where Tony gifts to her a suit of armor and she uses it as a superhero during the "Invincible Iron Man" comic book series from 2009-2012, though she retired just before that series run had ended.